Dying Light: Retouched Update Rolls Out June 26, Bringing Graphical Enhancements

Dying Light, the acclaimed 2015 survival horror title from Techland, is getting an update featuring graphics and audio enhancements. Dying Light: Retouched Update will be released June 26 across PC and consoles. First announced in January, the update will include improvements to textures, lighting, draw distances and shadow quality, alongside a remastered soundtrack. Techland is gearing up to launch Dying Light: The Beast, the third entry in the series, in August. 

Dying Light: Retouched Update Coming This Week

The studio revealed the release date for Dying Light: Retouched Update and detailed the improvements included in a blog post on Tuesday. Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektała clarified that the update, which marks 10 years of the cult classic game, was a not a remaster of the game and only featured specific enhancements to visuals. 

“Quite a few of you were expecting a full remaster of some sort,” Smektała said. “So, let's set the record straight: the Retouched Update is about squeezing out even more from the Dying Light you already love. It's not a complete overhaul or remaster.” 

Dying Light: Retouched Update will feature improved and upscaled texture quality of surroundings, bringing a sharper look to assets in the game. The update also includes improved lighting and physics-based rendering that enhance reflections from metal surfaces in the game. 

"Over the past couple of years, we've added a lot, customized a lot, and learned how to squeeze more from the tech we already have. One day, someone just started applying those learnings to some old assets - and it just clicked that we could do that across the whole game,” Grzegorz Świstowski, franchise technical game director, explained the idea behind the Retouched update. 

A before and after image, showcasing visual enhancements to surfaces, reflections
Photo Credit: Techland

Techland has also boosted the maximum LOD (level of detail) range from 260 percent to 340 percent in the view distance menu in the game options. This will allow players on modern systems to increase the distance of detailed assets in the game, the developer said.

Additionally, floors, walls and some other surfaces in Dying Light will receive a new 8K ultra shadow quality and improved lighting to add detail and depth to them. 

All these visual enhancements, however, do not change the system requirements for the game, Techland confirmed.  

Finally, Dying Light composer Paweł Blaszczak has remastered the game's entire soundtrack and added new tracks and ambient sounds in the game. Audio feedback during combat has also been beefed up to sound crunchier and more impactful. 

Dying Light: Retouched Update will arrive as a free download for all Dying Light owners on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X on June 26.  

Techland's next game, Dying Light: The Beast, will launch on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X on August 22. A previous-gen console version of the game will be released later this year.